Family accuses doctors of failing to warn of risk

The parents of a boy left severely brain damaged after a heart transplant operation accused doctors in the High Court in London last week of failing to warn them of the risk.

Kevin and Linda Poynter sued Hillingdon Health Authority in west London for damages on behalf of their son, Matthew, now aged 10. They claim that they would never have consented to the operation in 1987, when their son was aged 16 months, if the surgeon, Sir Magdi Yacoub, and his team at Harefield Hospital had told them that there …